The focal theme of the 3rd World Congress on Disaster Management (3rd WCDM), which concluded here on Friday, was to foster ‘resilience’ in the face of disaster.
The five-day conference witnessed the participation of 1,100 delegates from 18 States in the country apart from foreign delegates. Senior officials from the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, officials of various government departments, scientists and policy makers participated in it.
The five different but interrelated global frameworks – Sendai Framework, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Agenda for Humanity and the New Urban Agenda – underlined the importance of disaster resilience.
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The people of Visakhapatnam, the officials and government had shown resilience by recovering quickly after cyclone Hudhud devastated the city in October, 2014, Chairman of Scientific and Technical Committee of the 3rd WCDM P.G. Dhar Chakrabarti and governing body member of DMICS (Disaster Management Initiatives and Convergence Society) Ray Kancharla told the media.
Though the primary responsibility for building resilience rests with the governments, all stakeholders, either through their own initiatives or in collaboration with others, could support, facilitate and promote resilience across different sectors. The 3rd WCDM participants said they would work both individually and collectively with the stakeholders concerned in seven areas: resilience of the poor, agriculture and livelihood, schools and hospitals, infrastructure, cities and human settlements, communities and resilient business.
Mr. Chakrabarti said that assessment of risks before taking up new development projects, disaster impact analysis, design parameters, risk mitigation, risk insurance, risk response, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction were some of the issues that came up for discussion during the five-day congress.
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Three ‘A’s
Mr. Ray said that three ‘A’s (Anticipate, Absorb and Adapt) were required for disaster mitigation. Agriculture, housing and schools should also be made disaster-resilient
DMICS president S. Ananda Babu said that the 2nd WCDM was also conducted in Visakhapatnam. It saw the participation of 1,000 delegates, including those for 47 countries.